Small Ball

Geoffrey Norman

January 13, 2014 11:52 AM

The education of the American public as to the smallness of our political class continues.

Last week, we learned – and did we ever – that, in retribution for some trivial political slight, the people around someone with media clearance to run for president took malicious delight in punishing commuters by making an already atrocious traffic bottleneck even worse. The details of this one were examined in loving and minute detail and will, no doubt, continue to be. For the ordinary citizen, none of it qualifies for blockbuster status.

People in government will go out of their way to make life miserable for those they serve? Just because they can? Well, you don’t say. Have you dealt, lately, with the TSA?

This morning, Politico publishes an excerpt ofHRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clintonby Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, from which we learn about an elaborate enemies list that was kept by some of Ms. Clinton's closest and most devoted acolytes, including one who had a government title (and salary, presumably) but whose “true value” was as:

... an elite political operator and one of Hillary’s favorite suppliers of gossip. After more than a dozen years spent working for the Clintons, he knew how to keep score in a political race.

So there was a list. A spreadsheet actually upon which were preserved:

… the acts of the sinners and saints [that] would never be forgotten.

And included:

a special circle of Clinton hell reserved for people who had endorsed Obama or stayed on the fence after Bill and Hillary had raised money for them, appointed them to a political post or written a recommendation to ice their kid’s application to an elite school. On one early draft of the hit list, each Democratic member of Congress was assigned a numerical grade from 1 to 7, with the most helpful to Hillary earning 1s and the most treacherous drawing 7s.